Meaning of the colonization of America reflected in Cuba

October 12, the day commemorating the arrival of the navigator Christopher Columbus to America in 1492, is an opportunity to reflect on the consequences of colonization, a Cuban expert said.

According to Rolando Julio Rensoli, professor at the University of Havana and vice-president of the José Antonio Aponte (anti-racism) Commission of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, (UNEAC) this event is a reminder of cultural and armed violence; “it’s a day of all possible violence,” he said.

We must remember the colonization process that began then: “There was no discovery, it was not an intercultural encounter, it was the beginning of violence”, he pointed out in an interview given to the Cuban national television news channel, on the occasion of the anniversary.

For Rensoli, the colonization process has not ended in our days and is expressed in new forms of domination based on discrimination; that is why in Cuba the commemoration is approached by emphasizing the need to recognize and understand the colonization process and the associated violence, instead of celebrating it as a “discovery.”

He recalled that the Executive Coordinating Group of the National Programme against Racism and Racial Discrimination, had proposed that this date should be commemorated, starting in 2023, as the Day against Genocide, Colonization and Racism.